An insect responsible for the loss of much of the eastern United States Appalachian region’s hemlock trees has found its way into Michigan. The hemlock woolly adelgid poses a threat to the state’s valuable hemlock stands. We need a call to action. Read more: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/losing_most_of_michigans_ eastern_hemlock_resource_is_a_real_possibility

By Fred Hain|
2016-10-04T15:12:59+00:00 October 4th, 2016|News|Comments Off on Losing most of Michigan’s eastern hemlock resource is a real possibility

The Forest Health Research and Education Center (Forest Health Center), a collaborative project among the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), the University of Kentucky, and the Kentucky Division of Forestry, will share a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation with researchers from Washington State University (serving as lead), the University of Tennessee, [...]

By Fred Hain|
2016-09-23T09:51:42+00:00 September 23rd, 2016|News|Comments Off on Forest Health Research and Education Center Shares $3 Million NSF Grant

BENT CREEK EXPERIMENTAL FOREST, N.C. — When the woolly adelgids come and descend on the forest, the eastern hemlock dies. It’s been like this since the insect was discovered in Virginia in 1951. The aphid-like pest spread north first, but by the early 2000s, eastern hemlocks in the southern Appalachians were being decimated by the [...]

By Fred Hain|
2016-09-16T14:48:54+00:00 September 16th, 2016|News|Comments Off on An Army of Beetles Could Help Save Dying Hemlock Forests

HEMLOCK A Forest Giant on the Edge by David R. Foster editor. Yale University Press, 2014 I had never thought of eastern hemlock as a forest giant until I visited the mountains of western North Carolina. In my northern New England experience, an old-growth hemlock was a good-sized tree, often equal in girth to eastern white [...]

By Fred Hain|
2016-08-27T20:00:00+00:00 August 27th, 2016|News|Comments Off on HEMLOCK A Forest Giant on the Edge

Thousands of acres of hemlock trees in the Smokies are in danger because of an insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid. “We’re looking at some of the sadder picture of forest insects and disease,” said GSMNP Forester Jesse Webster. Popular lookouts are littered with dead trees and visitors are noticing. Read more: http://wjhl.com/2016/08/22/smokies-foresters-fighting-bug-deadly-to-thousands-of-trees/

By Fred Hain|
2016-08-26T14:22:36+00:00 August 26th, 2016|News|Comments Off on Smokies foresters fighting bug deadly to thousands of trees

That’s due to the one-two punch of two highly destructive insects: hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) — an aphid-like insect — and elongated hemlock scale (EHS) — an armored insect. Both are foreign invaders: HWA from Asia and EHS from Japan. Because of this, neither has any natural predators here, so they are free to infect [...]

By Fred Hain|
2016-08-25T15:38:15+00:00 August 25th, 2016|News|Comments Off on Pennsylvania state tree under severe attack, prognosis unclear

Since its accidental arrival here from southern Japan about two decades ago, the hemlock woolly adelgid has killed hundreds of thousands of trees, devastating some forests in the region. Exact numbers are hard to come by, says Margot Wallston, statewide coordinator for the Hemlock Restoration Initiative, but hemlocks “are a major player in our forested [...]

At first glance, you might not think these little bits of fluff could pose much of a threat. But, like Star Trek’s troublesome tribbles, hemlock woolly adelgids (Adelges tsugae) can quickly multiply and wreak havoc. When these tiny sap-sucking insects were introduced to the forests of the Northeastern United States, they lacked an effective predator [...]

Fred Hain knows that when a forest dies — from its deep root system up to its canopy that once teemed with birds, squirrels, and insects — it makes no sound. For the past two decades, he’s watched green hemlock forests in the North Carolina mountains quietly fade to ashen gray. Now Hain, director of [...]

By nlmccoy|
2016-07-12T13:27:15+00:00 April 7th, 2016|News|Comments Off on Fred Hain is Bringing Hope to the Hemlocks

The balsam fir, a tree now starring in many homes as the centerpiece of Christmas decorations, has a tiny enemy in the wild. So does the hemlock, the Pennsylvania state tree. Balsam Woolly Adelgid Their nemesis is a little sucker, literally: an insect called the woolly adelgid. “It has a piercing, sucking mouthpart almost [...]

By nlmccoy|
2016-07-12T13:25:59+00:00 December 16th, 2013|News|Comments Off on What’s eating our evergreen trees?